Thomson

It’s a heck of a way to run a pre-election campaign. On the eve of an expected election, politicians usually spend their time playing up good news, downplaying the bad, shaking hands and kissing babies.

National Marine Corps museum moving legacy of fighting force

Deciding just who to salute must have been tough for the marine officer candidates touring the impressive National Museum of the Marine Corps.

The hundred or so tough young men and women in combat fatigues had to look twice when examining the realistic battle displays on view in the $100-million facility.

More then 70 life-sized models are part of very realistic battle displays featured in the exhibition galleries of the museum, situated on a 135-acre site adjacent to the U.S. Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., which is in Prince William County.

Opened in November 2006, the museum offers free admission and tells the story of the U.S. Marine Corps exploits from its founding in Revolutionary America to current service scenes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Allow at least two to three hours to explore the 118,000 square feet of interactive exhibits, such as the intense boot camp experience and the Korean War's frigid winter battlefield scene.

Located about 55 kilometres south of Washington, D.C., the museum's striking architectural lines are a symbolic reminder of the legendary Second World War photograph of marines raising Old Glory on Iwo Jima after their heroic amphibious landing on the tiny Japanese island. Standing under the soaring glass and steel architecture, it's not difficult to imagine those flag raisers of Iwo Jima.

Hanging from the ceiling of the main gallery are several marine service airplanes, including a First World War biplane and a modern vertical takeoff fighter. Below the aerial viewpoints, elaborate exhibits set on the museum's marble floor display a machine gunner in an armoured vehicle blasting his way to glory. There's more action just 100 metres away at the other side of the concourse, where a helicopter has landed a group of marines on a remote outpost to do battle.

The participants in all this action are the most realistic models you've ever seen, life-sized figures that capture the raw authentic drama of marines in battle. These figures might not have a pulse, but they sure set the heartbeats of visitors fluttering wildly. Watching the stoic marine officer candidates taking in the action of these plaster images of their profession, it's difficult to guess their thoughts.

Cast from actual marines who volunteered to endure the four-hour plaster casting process, the figures play a prominent role in many of the exhibits set up throughout the museum. From the Korean to the Vietnam theatres of war and from the Spanish-American War to Iwo Jima, the equipment and personnel from the era accurately capture three-dimensional moments in Marine Corps history.

When the model makers begin the casting procedure for the figure's head, they pour a special plaster on the volunteer's face and pack it on in a 45-minute process where the marine breathes through a couple of straws, says Patrick Mooney, an ex-marine and now the museum's resident historian.

"In the last 15 minutes, they were told to make the face and keep it, like this," Mooney says, saluting the resolute face of a Spanish-American War vet, now permanently recorded in his battle position.